Massachusetts Town Lifts 32-Year Pac-Man Ban

It is hard to believe that after a 32 year ban, folks living in the town of Marshfield, Massachusetts, will finally be able to play Pac-Man in the public for the first time ever. Back in 1982, there was a bylaw that banned coin-operated arcade games in local businesses, but thankfully, the residents there have overturned this bylaw via a vote that happened late last month. What was surprising, however, was the fact that the vote ended up at 203 in favor to 175 against, making it considerably tight when one takes into account that it is playing arcade games that we’re talking about here.

In this day and age where consoles like the Xbox One and the Sony PS4 packs plenty of power, it is really an eye opener to hear that coin-operated arcade games were still banned in that part of the U.S., with the Supreme Court refusing to hear an appeal a year after the ban was put in place, followed by the bylaw being upheld on two separate occasions before the April 2014 decision.

Apparently, town councils are concerned that coin-operated arcade games could be a substitute of a kid-friendly version of slot machines. In fact, there are several states out there that have drawn up special provisions that are known as “Chuck E. Cheese laws” in order to protect kid-friendly arcade games from such prohibitions that have been placed on commercial gambling.